Mawazine
Mawazine is a music festival held annually in Rabat, Morocco, featuring many international and local music artists. The festival is presided over by Mounir Majidi, the personal secretary of the Moroccan King Mohammed VI and founder and president of Maroc Culture, the cultural foundation that organizes Mawazine and other events. The 2013 festival was attended by an estimated 2.5 million people, making Mawazine the largest festival in the world after Donauinselfest in Vienna. With 90 acts on 7 stages it has the highest ratio of attendees per stage in the world. Mawazine is one of several events which are intended to promote an image of Morocco as a tolerant nation, and a post on the event's website declares that the goal of the festival is to promote Rabat as a city open to the world. It has nonetheless sparked controversy, and some Moroccan politicians have criticised the event for "encouraging immoral behaviour," as well as critiquing its purported financing by Moroccan state-owned companies or private companies whose only client is the Moroccan state. Artists such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Charles Aznavour, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Ricky Martin, Pharrell Williams, Iggy Azalea, Wiz Khalifa, Pitbull, Kanye West, Scorpions, La Fouine, Maître Gims, Damso, Booba, French Montana, Usher, Avicii, Akon, David Guetta, DJ Snake, Hardwell, Placebo, The Chainsmokers, Maroon 5, The Jacksons, Sugababes, Chic, Evanescence, Chris Brown, Luis Fonsi, Bruno Mars, Nick Jonas, Stromae, Jason Derulo, Juanes, Lenny Kravitz, The Weeknd, Kylie Minogue, Demi Lovato, Ellie Goulding, Sting, Julio Iglesias, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Cat Stevens, B.B. King, Susana Baca, Carlos Santana, Lenny Kravitz, Elton John and Deep Purple have performed at Mawazine. The festival has known two eras. The first spanned between 2001 and 2007, when it was dedicated to the music of the world genre. The event had some financial difficulties and was struggling to find sponsors. The second era, which started in 2008, has seen Mounir Majidi, the personal secretary of the Moroccan King, take over the event. During this period, the festival started programming more mainstream music, and has become much stronger financially with many sponsorships from large Moroccan businesses. The press reported that the list of artists performing in the event is validated by Mohammed VI. The Generation Mawazine competition launches the music career of promising young talent. This artistic competition, which has been run since 2006 as a fringe activity to the festival, sets out to find the talent of tomorrow and offers them a major springboard into the music business. Open to all styles of music, this competition gives the stage to new young talents and is judged along 3 predefined categories: rap/hip hop, fusion/neo pop and electronic music. This initiative gives unknown bands the opportunity to perform in front of the general public and media in a professional setting. The winning groups see their career launched in Morocco, produce an album and perform at the following year's festival as established artists. In Morocco, the funding of the festival has often been the target of criticism. According to critics, the festival has been funded through state-owned companies such as CDG, OCP, ONCF and Royal Air Maroc, money which they deem can be better spent in sectors such as health/education/unemployment. In 2011, the management of Mawazine declared that budget of the festival is around 62 million Dirhams, of which 27 million is provided by sponsors and 35 million from revenues of the event. They added that only 4 million dirham is given by Rabat's city council. JLEC (Jorf Lasfar Energy Company), a Morocco-based subsidiary of Taqa, appeared in 2010 as a major sponsor of the event on the festival's official website. In January 2011, Peter Barker-Homek, CEO of Taqa between 2006 and October 2009, declared in a letter sent to the Securities Exchange Commission, that he was instructed to donate $5 million/year to Hassan Bouhemou, CEO of SNI (holding company controlled by the Moroccan royal family), the sum was allegedly going to fund the music festival. In the letter Barker states that he was unconvinced of the utility of such donation, and inquired Taqa's Chairman al-Suwaidi about it, the latter stated that in return for the payment Taqa would get the green light to expand its energy plant in the country. JLEC holds a 30 years contract with Morocco's main electricity distributor ONE, and supplies as much as 50% of the country's electricity needs according to its management. Hassan Bouhemou, denied being involved in any way in the organisation of the festival or its management and Aziz Daki director of the festival declared that the amounts reported by Barker are incorrect. According to Telquel JLEC donated 10 million Dirhams to Mawazine, replacing Emirati firm Maabar as a major sponsor of the event in 2010. In 2009 eleven people were killed and forty were injured in a stampede at the "Hay Nahda stadium" during the festival shortly after midnight on 24 May 2009. The incident occurred when spectators attempted to leave in a hurry near the end of a free concert by Moroccan pop star Abdelaziz Stati. A wire fence collapsed during this attempt, endangering the lives of the 70,000 spectators. The concert had begun at 23:00, later than billed, and this caused people attending other concerts, including one by Stevie Wonder, to go to the stadium when their concerts were finished. Eight of the victims were seriously injured. Five of the dead were women, four were men and two were teenagers. They were all discovered after the stampede had completed and found to have been crushed by suffocation. Survivors had to be pulled from the wreckage by rescuers. The dead were all Moroccan. Seven people were still in hospital the following day. Hassan Lamrani, the Governor of Rabat, blamed concert-goers for the stampede, saying that they had "decided to go over the metal barriers to have a quick exit". There were 3,000 police on duty at the event. Maroc Cultures issued a statement to express "its great sorrow", extending "its profound and sincere condolences" to those affected by the tragedy. King Mohammed VI also sent the families of those affected messages of condolence and offered to pay for funeral services and hospital costs. Morocco's interior ministry has announced it will investigate the incident. 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